Alcohol-based dye might penetrate Castello a little, but I image that even light sanding would remove it. If it were re-dyed, then any areas that survived the sanding would be darker? Needs to be tested.
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His Majesty's Ship Fowey (44) 1744 by AllanKP69
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2025
- Messages
- 450
- Points
- 128
Allan,
I did not think about the planking needing to be dressed after bonding, so an application will be needed after. It is probably going deeper than the dye will penetrate. I said alcohol as the solvent carrier because it does not swell the surface of the wood.
A dye dissolved in water penetrates more deeply than alcohol. On planking that will be abraded - water would probably be better for the initial treatment. Once fared and sanded/scraped then the alcohol/dye so as to not raise the grain.
This is a dye. It is individual pigment molecules penetrating the wood, changing the color of it, becoming a part of it.
The dye is not on the surface of the wood, it is in the wood. I think that the dye will fill all available spaces in the wood after a treatment or two. Then anymore will just stay in the surface puddle that you wipe away.
PVA will work the same. The micro irregular surface is the same. The pores are the same. The PVA hyphae will penetrate the same.
Mixol says that 20 plus? of their pigments are inorganic/ mineral. They have been the color that they are for billions of years. The other organic pigment molecules are probably going to be oxidized - especially if significant UV gets at it.
Inside a hundred years may be a safe from breakdown time span.
To my eye paint on a model always looks like paint. Acrylic paints look chalky to me - flat, but a different type of flat.
I would think that because the solvent is water, part of the surface prep would be pain water or 10% PVA and sand or scrape the puffed up fibers before the paint. The oil base can be thin semi transparent washes that do not punch you between the eyes.
No photos:
I have my assembled from a kit Gerstner tool chest that I dyed and finished here. I can get a JPEG.
The Birch plywood that I dyed to be a Rosewood library and the Oak kitchen floor that I dyed to be Black Walnut are back in Kentucky and now belong to someone else. Not on a ship model.
You will have to test this on scrap. Castillo is dense, but it is still a bundle of straws. You will have to determine if it takes up a dye uniformly or if has regions with their own varying properties.
One other aspect - IF the dye does not give you a uniform color, the wood will still be the final color that you want. Should you have to paint it, the paint should be able to be thinner and need fewer coats. Off white over off white.
If you want tar - I just bought a 4oz jar of tar powder - the same stuff used on the classy NMM models that were Japanned.
Look up Victory 1737 Balchen's at NMM for the Japanning use of it - A higher concentration is black.
The Asphaltum is $6.00 - UPS was $11.00. Now, it is a surface thing - a transparent surface thing in linseed oil.
Dean
I did not think about the planking needing to be dressed after bonding, so an application will be needed after. It is probably going deeper than the dye will penetrate. I said alcohol as the solvent carrier because it does not swell the surface of the wood.
A dye dissolved in water penetrates more deeply than alcohol. On planking that will be abraded - water would probably be better for the initial treatment. Once fared and sanded/scraped then the alcohol/dye so as to not raise the grain.
This is a dye. It is individual pigment molecules penetrating the wood, changing the color of it, becoming a part of it.
The dye is not on the surface of the wood, it is in the wood. I think that the dye will fill all available spaces in the wood after a treatment or two. Then anymore will just stay in the surface puddle that you wipe away.
PVA will work the same. The micro irregular surface is the same. The pores are the same. The PVA hyphae will penetrate the same.
Mixol says that 20 plus? of their pigments are inorganic/ mineral. They have been the color that they are for billions of years. The other organic pigment molecules are probably going to be oxidized - especially if significant UV gets at it.
Inside a hundred years may be a safe from breakdown time span.
To my eye paint on a model always looks like paint. Acrylic paints look chalky to me - flat, but a different type of flat.
I would think that because the solvent is water, part of the surface prep would be pain water or 10% PVA and sand or scrape the puffed up fibers before the paint. The oil base can be thin semi transparent washes that do not punch you between the eyes.
No photos:
I have my assembled from a kit Gerstner tool chest that I dyed and finished here. I can get a JPEG.
The Birch plywood that I dyed to be a Rosewood library and the Oak kitchen floor that I dyed to be Black Walnut are back in Kentucky and now belong to someone else. Not on a ship model.
You will have to test this on scrap. Castillo is dense, but it is still a bundle of straws. You will have to determine if it takes up a dye uniformly or if has regions with their own varying properties.
One other aspect - IF the dye does not give you a uniform color, the wood will still be the final color that you want. Should you have to paint it, the paint should be able to be thinner and need fewer coats. Off white over off white.
If you want tar - I just bought a 4oz jar of tar powder - the same stuff used on the classy NMM models that were Japanned.
Look up Victory 1737 Balchen's at NMM for the Japanning use of it - A higher concentration is black.
The Asphaltum is $6.00 - UPS was $11.00. Now, it is a surface thing - a transparent surface thing in linseed oil.
Dean
This photo of the part of the knee of the head that was found, then covered over by Irma several years ago is in Josh Marano's report but I had trouble downloading it. He just now sent it as an attachment to an email. As he mentioned it is not super clear, but I hope some of you will find it interesting none-the-less.
Allan
Allan